Elevator door guide



Jan. 3, 1939. H, LOFT]; 2,142,519

ELEVATOR DOOR GUIDE Filed May 26, 1937 I I -wi JW Q 24 23" A; 2% Z, A?

I K i 45 za Z4 2;

@ i 4 r zd f I INVENTOR. [fame] J lo fzlz' s;

Patented Jan. 3, 1939 UNITED STATES ELEVATOR noon GUIDE Homer J. Loftis,Ironton, Ohio, assignor to Henrite Products Corporation, Ironton, Ohio,a corporation of Ohio Application May 26, 1937, Serial No. 144,863

2 Claims.

This invention relates to an improved guide member for use on slidingdoors, and especially on elevator doors, such as hatchway doors and cardoors.

As an elevator car travels up and down its hatchway, the movement of thecar creates a region of increased pressure in advance of the car and aregion of reduced pressure behind the car. These variations in pressure,created by the movement of the car, cause elevator doors, such ashatchway doors and car doors, to rattle or vibrate. Rattling is verydisturbing and objectionable, the same being especially noticeable inbuildings having high speed elevators. Ordinarily elevator doors areprovided with metal guide shoes or guide shoes of other materials whichare hard and unyielding and which, as the same ride in the guidechannels provided in the metal threshold plate of floor landings, or inthe sills of elevator door frames, vibrate laterally in said channelswith the resultant production of objectionable noisy rattling.

It is an object of this invention to provide a novel construction ofdoor guide which is not only.

of simple and inexpensive construction, but com-, prises, in the main, abody of resilient or yielding material having a degree of flexibilitywhich renders the same of both sound deadening and vibration dampeningeffect. Furthermore, by reason of its flexibility, the door guide bodywill readily accommodate itself to any imperfections or mis-align-mentsin the guide channel in which the same is caused to ride.

Another object of the invention is to provide a door guide membercomprising a main body of resilient material having connected therewith,in a novel manner, wear resisting and friction reducing facings fordirect contact with the sides of the guide channel in which the samemoves.

Another object of the invention is to provide in a guide shoe of thekind mentioned, a novel arrangement for attaching the same in operativerelation to the bottom of a door by fastening screws and including rigidtubular bushings or bearings to receive and pass said screws, saidbushings being bonded. to the guide shoe body.

Other objects of this invention, not at this time more particularlyenumerated, will be understood from the following detailed descriptionof the same.

An ilustrative embodiment of this invention is shown in the accompanyingdrawing, in which:-

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary side elevation of a door provided with the novelguide member of this invention as disposed in a cooperating guidechannel, the guide member being shown in side elevation, and the guidechannel structure in longitudinal section; Fig. 2 is a verticalcross-section, taken on line 2--2 in Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is a horizontalsection, taken on line 3-3 in Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a central longitudinal section through the guide member perse; and Fig. 5 is a transverse sectional view of the same, taken on line55 in Fig. 4.

Similar characters of reference are employed in all of the abovedescribed views, to indicate corresponding parts.

Referring to the drawing, the reference character I indicates the floorof an elevator car having a sliding door II, which is shown as equippedwith the novel form and construction of door guide embodying theimprovements of the present invention. Each door, and similarly eachhatchway door, is ordinarily equipped with two U1 more of the saidguides, which are secured to the door bottoms so as to projectdownwardly therefrom into the guide channel I2 provided in the sill orthreshold plate I3 of the car door or of the hatchway door, as the casemay be.

The novel door guide, according to this invention, comprises a main bodyl4 of molded relatively soft vulcanized rubber. Said main body I I is ofsubstatnial length and is of rectangular cross sectional shape. In widthsaid main body is sized to fit easily within and across the guidechannel I2 of the sill or threshold plate I3. At its respective ends,the main body I4 is formed to provide tapered or rounded terminalportions I5. Extending perpendicularly through the main body I4, atoradjacent to each terminal portion l5 thereof, are openings or pasagesI6. Disposed within the upper portions of said openings or passages itare metallic tubular bushings H, the bores I8 of which are of reduceddiameter as compared with the diameters of the openings or passages I6.Said bushings terminate short of the free bottom surface of said mainbody l4, thus providing receiving socket portions Ill. The bushings Hare bonded to the door guide body by vulcanization, and thus firmly andsecurely held in assembled relation thereto.

To secure the door guide in operative relation to the bottom of the doorII, the shanks 20 of fastening screws are passed upwardly through thebores l8 of the bushings I1, and suitably engaged with the doormaterial. When the screws are driven home, the heads 2| thereof willenter the socket portions I9 and will stop in abutting relation to thelower ends of the bushings, which form seats 22 therefor. The heads H ofthe screws will thus be enclosed within said socket portions [9, andconsequently will be countersunk relative to the bottom side or surfaceof the guide shoe body !4.

The side surfaces of the body portion I4, which respectively oppose thevertical wall surfaces oi the guide channel [2 of the sill or thresholdplate l3, are provided with wear resisting and friction reducing facingmembers 23, which extend therealong between the terminal portions ISwith their lower margins preferably contiguous to the bottom of the bodyportion 14. Preferably these facing members are in the form of thinsheet metal plates, which are preferably made of brass, bronze,stainless steel or other metal which is resistant to oxidation orcorrosion. The facing members 23 are strongly secured to the bodyportion I4 by being bonded thereto by vulcanization. The extremities orend marginal portions of the facing members 23 are formed to provideinturned end portions 24 which are countersunk or imbedded in the rubbermaterial of the body portion l4, the side surfaces of the latter beingindented as at 25. so that the end edges of the facing members aredisposed inwardly of the plane of said body portion side surfaces, thusprotecting the facing members from likelihood of catching on the sidewalls of the guide channel I 2 as they slide along the latter, andconsequently eliminating risk of deformation of the facing members or ofdisplacement or ripping of the same away from the guide shoe body. Saidfacing members 23 provide smooth friction reducing surfaces for directcontact with the guide channel walls when the guide shoe moves back andforth through the guide channel in accompanying movement with theopening and closing movements of the door served thereby. The facingmembers 23 also provide a wear resistant medium intermediate the doorguide body and the guide channel walls which prevents defacement orinjury to the latter. The facing members 23, being relatively thin, willreadily flex with the resilient body portion l4 of the shoe, andconsequently the whole structure of the shoe. as a unitary element, willbe sufficiently resilient or flexible to readily yield to anyinequalities or mis-alignment in the side wall contours of the guidechannel l2, this being of considerable advantage, since it eliminatesany tendency of the door movements being unduly frictionally opposed,and any tendency of the door to stick at any point along its line oftravel.

In addition to the advantages above pointed out, the resilient characterof the door guide and the fact that the body thereof is not composed ofhard or noise producing material, assures that a substantialy noiselessmovement of the door guide in the guide channel is assured, and at thesame time the sound of any lateral vibration is thoroughly dampened sothat rattling noise from such cause is likewise eliminated.

To the above advantages are added the economy of cost which the simpleunitary door guide construction provides, since the same can be producedwith a minimum of labor and material, and requires no machining orexpensive assembling operations. At the same time, the guide shoe isexceedingly easy to apply in operative assembled relation to a door tobe served thereby.

As various changes could be made in the above described construction,and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention couldbe made without departing from the scope thereof, as defined by thefollowing claims, it is intended that all matter contained in the abovedescription or shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted asillustrative and not in a limiting sense.

I claim:--

1. A sliding door guide adapted to ride in a door guidechannelcomprising, a body portion of comparatively soft vulcanized rubber ofrectangular cross-section and substantial length and of a widthapproximately the width of said door guide channel, said body portionhaving affixed to its sides facing members of flat relatively thin andflexible sheet metal secured to and extending along its channel wallopposing sides, and said facing members being adapted to flex in companywith flexing movements of said body portion.

2. A sliding door guide adapted to ride in a door guide channelcomprising, a body portion of comparatively soft vulcanized rubber ofrectangular cross-section and substantial length and of a widthapproximating the width of said door guide channel, said body portionhaving facing members of flat relatively thin and flexible sheet metalextending along its channel wall opposing sides, said facing membersbeing bonded to said body portion by vulcanization and being adapted toflex in company with flexing movements of said body portion, and saidfacing members having oblique- 1y inturned end portions indentinglyimbedded in the rubber body portion to countersink their terminal edgesinwardly of the face planes of the later and thus providing said facingmembers with forwardly and inwardly inclined leading ends.

HOMER J. LOFTIS.

Bis

